Local high school, JH wrestlers competing in Maverick Conference Tournament in Poteau

The Maverick Conference Tournament, which this year will begin at 10 a.m. today and Saturday at Poteau High School’s Sherman Floyd Fieldhouse, is the last big tournament of the year. Thus, there’s a lot on the line.

First off, and perhaps most important from an individual perspective, seeding is up for grabs for next month’s regional tournaments.

“Anytime you have a conference tournament, you’re thinking about seeding purposes,” Sallisaw boys coach Mark Smith said. “There will be schools there like Wagoner and Poteau. Those are schools that will probably end up in our regional. A lot of times, we’ve wrestled these guys before (earlier this season). You don’t want to lose that last match against an opponent you beat before because all of the sudden they’re getting seeding criteria over you. It is important.”

“It’s a big deal,” Vian coach Garett Willis said. “I don’t think there are a ton of (Class) 3A schools in it. Heavener will be there. There will be three or four teams we’re going to be wrestling at regionals who we’ll match-up with (this weekend). There will definitely be some seeding criteria for regionals coming up, and that’s important in trying to make a run in the postseason.”

“We need to do well against some stiff competition so we can do well in our seeding and see what we can end up with (at Class 3A Regional Tournament) and go on from there,” Gore coach Matt Hawkins said. “Going to the Paul Post Tournament (last weekend at Paul Post Field House), we knew there was going to be good competition there. I thought our kids went out and wrestled hard, and we got what we wanted out of it.”

A second important thing about this weekend’s Maverick Conference Tournament is it’s the last major tuneup before wrestling’s postseason next month of the Class 4A Dual State Tournament on Feb. 9 in Enid for the Black Diamonds and regional and state tournaments for everyone.

“As long as we take care of business, we stay healthy and everything falls in line, I think we’ll be fine tournament-wise,” Smith said. “There’s going to be some good teams there. We need to be on our toes. We’re going to go do the best we can and go from there.”

“Last week was a rough tournament (McLoud Dual Tournament last weekend),” Sallisaw girls assistant coach LuWella Harris said. “We had some tough losses, but I think everybody is ready for this weekend. We’ve been practicing harder than they have been. We were out a week (due to inclement weather), and the girls hardly had any practices. We’re looking to come in and do something this weekend.”

“This is the last big goround of the year before regionals,” said Willis, whose Vian teams will have a quadrangular dual at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hulbert with Sequoyah-Tahlequah and Stilwell. “You might have a dual here and there, but as far as tournaments go, this will be our last real showing before regionals.”

“This Maverick Conference Tournament is a big one for us,” Hawkins said. “There’s 26 teams signed up. A lot of them, we’ve seen already, and some we haven’t — so, we’re looking forward to seeing some of those. The ones we have seen, we want to go out and do better than we did the last time. That’s how you measure success.”

The third and most obvious important thing with this weekend’s Maverick Conference Tournament is being crowned an individual champion or be the team conference champion.

“There is a conference title at stake,” Smith said. “That’s important, too. Anytime we compete, we’re wanting to win. It doesn’t really qualify you for anything, Our District Duals is what we obviously shoot for to go to Dual State.”

“We have two tournaments left,” Sallisaw girls coach Darrel Hume said. “At the Maverick Conference, we’re going to see a lot of girls in our classification of schools. That’s going to be good to see where we’re at. I’m moving some of my freshmen down to junior high so they can get some better experience — and we can see some glory in winning. Next weekend, we’re going to go to the Glenpool Tournament. That will be our last one before we compete in the regional tournament (Feb..13 at Okmulgee with Dewar as host school).”

“We’ve been junior high conference champions (for) three years in a row,” Harris said. “We’re looking to do four. We put a lot of our freshmen on our junior high to see if we can make it four years in a row for our junior high team. Our junior high and high school teams are ready.”

“We could have a couple in the finals,” Willis said. “The capability is there. With our junior high going as well, they could push for the team race (Maverick Conference champion).”

In the end, however, it all comes down to getting the wrestlers mat time and more matches.

“I’ve got two freshmen and two sophomores wrestling in high school,” Hawkins said. “I’m taking my freshmen (Kaydin McCartney and Devon Mannon) and they’re going to wrestle junior high for the rest of this year. I’m actually bringing six (junior high wrestlers). Hopefully, we’ll have guys their age and have some success, and see how they do against guys their age. After Junior High All-State (Feb. 1-3), then I’ll jump them back up to high school.”